4 reasons Abraham Lincoln wouldn't win the GOP nomination in 2012

Yes, Abraham Lincoln was America's first Republican president, and, yes, the GOP proudly calls itself the Party of Lincoln. But Bradley University sociology chair Jackie Hogan wonders: Could Lincoln win his party’s nomination in 2012? Here Hogan considers his stance on some of the hot-button issues in the Republican primary race.

1.
Lincoln 'invented' income tax

A couple share a moment during their visit to the Abraham Lincoln Memorial in Washington Feb. 12, 2009.

While Republican candidates today win kudos for signing Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge, it is unlikely that Lincoln would sign on, since he, in effect, invented income tax. That is to say he was the first American president to sign federal income tax into law. And not only that, but it was a progressive income tax, with the wealthiest Americans paying a higher rate.

He made no distinctions between earned income and capital gains – money made was money earned – and Lincoln’s administration needed its cut to pull the nation back from the brink of collapse. Strike one against Honest Abe.